The Bottineau pioneer. (Bottineau, N.D.) 1885-1895, 1887-03-17
III WHAT SAILORS EAT.

lWHAT SAILORS EAT.
"A Diet Made Up Largely of sssalt
Horse''-The Luxury Of a Fresh
Fish Dinner.
Perhaps some of the young admirers
Of q .life on the ocean wave" would
like to know how they Jared aboard
ship. There is no mothers pantry tc
visit. Each sailor furnishes his wi
tin plate. coffee-cup, and knife and
fork, He has no table, with chairs
placed for his convenience. When
grub is ready to be served the cook
gives the signal. A sailor comes and
receives a pan of bread; another takes
w pan Of beet, the third takes the large
coffee-pot. with hash or potatoes as the
cook chooses. The bill ct fare is fixed
BY law; At the beginning of the voy-
age the captain calls his crew aft and
inquiries if there are any who wish to
have their food weighed. They always
prefer to cat as much as they can
STOW away"
The sailors eat in the f~orecastle. If
they are disposed, they can rig them
selves a table; otherwise they must sit
around on trunks or the deck in rough
weather, and take their rations. The
officers eat with the captain in the cab
in. where a table is set and furnished as
at home A rack is used in rough
weather to keep the dishes from dane
ing. It there is a good cook on board
everything goes we'll, but an unskilled
cooksmakes all hands miserable.
During rough weather passengers do
not, attempt to sit at the table, but take
whatever they require in their hands
and eat the best way they can. One
day a sailor was eating his rations dur
ing rough weather, when the ship gave
2 lurch and a piece of beef went gal
Looping across the deck. The sailor
raised his fork, and making a dash at
the beef, shouted: stop that horse"
The sailors called their beef salt
horse" The story which they tell is
this: 'tOne voyage, when the beef was
particularly tough, a horseshoe was
found in the bottom of the beef barrel,
whereupon one of the sailors got up the
following rhyme:
"Old horse, old horse, what brought you here?
''From iSaccarap to Portland pier,
l was dragging lumber for many a year,
i was kicked and cuffed with sore abuse
And salted down for sailors use;
Between the mainmast and the pumps
/ was sailed down in great big chunks;
They hauled me out and picked my bones,
Then shove me over to Davy Jones'"
The, captain of a sailing ship was ask
led by his wife if she couldn't give the
sailors Il good dinner. He replied that
he was afraid it would make them
saucy. She finally prevailed. A fine
turkey was procured from shore and
given to the cook, who served it up in
good order and gave it to the sailors.
One gave a scrutinizing look and ex-
claimed: ''What is this old bird doing
here?' Another said: II wonder how
old it is? Must have died of old age"
The third remarked that if it had been
good, for anything they would have
Kept it in the cabin. They finally hove
it overheard and made a dinner of 'ssalt
horse" The captains wife, after that,
never meddled with her husbands
housekeeping.
Sometimes a dolphin is caught, and,
as you watch the dying celors of blue
and gold, as he writhes upon the deck,
visions of savory chowder and fresh
fried fish pass before YOU.
With what an important air the cook
comes into the cabin and asks for a
piece of silver, which he puts into the
frying-pan with the suffering fish. If
the silver turns black he considers the
fish to have been poisoned. He says
they sometimes eat copper from the
bottom of a ship or from copper banks.
How a%nxiously we await the test those
or shore, whose thoughts are filled with
politics, the temperance question and di-
vorce cases can never know. The silver
is usually found to be bright and shining,
and the luxury of a fresh-fsh dinner is
enjoyed with unadulterated happiness.
Often a porpoise is h%arpooned, and
then there is great excitement. The
liver and heart taste similar to those of
a hog, but one must be exceedingly
hungry to enjoy the meat. 1t has one
virtue-that of being frosh. The oil is
usually saved, being quite valuable.
That. found in the head is much esteem
ed for oiling clocks, etc, When a Span
ish mackerel is caught a savory dinner
may be expected.
Sometimes thousands of flying fish
dart from the water on all sides of the
ship. land, spreading their gauze wings,
fly for a few seconds above the water,
while we are tempted to exolaim:
Fish, fish all around,
And NOT one mouthful. to eat
For, although they are most delicate
eating, it is impossible to, catch them at
sea. Often during the night one flies
on board. Onathe island Of Barbados
the fishermen are very successful in
catching these fish, and a,meal of boned
flying fish, is worth eating.
During evere storms the cook has
many trials trying to serve his meals.
In carrying the dinner from the galley
so the cabin he is sometimes struck by
! \ heavy sea, the basket washed from
his grasp, the dinner and dishes
wrecked. On one occasion the cook of
a bark was struck by a sea and washed
overheard, dinner. basket, and all. 1t
was beyond the power of his shipmates
to save him. - Worcester Spy.
PATHS Toilet.
Apeculiarity in connection with Nine.
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